It has long been a tradition among hunters to pose for photographs of their prey and to mount the prey for later viewing. When the prey is turkey, hunters posing for a trophy shot with the bird attempt to spread its tail feathers in order to properly display them for the photo. This requires that the hunter use one or both hands to spread the tail feathers and to hold them in place during the photo. Attempts to simultaneously hold the hunter's weapon are difficult, clumsy and may cause an accident if the weapon accidentally falls.
Likewise, though devices exist to arrange a turkey's tail feathers for display on a wall or in the field as a decoy [see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,064,725 to Acker; U.S. Pat. No. 5,437,935 to Fredeen; U.S. Pat. No. 6,487,810B1 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,775,943B2 to Loughman; U.S. Pat. No. 6,451,393B1 to Ploetz; U.S. Pat. No. 6,560,894B2 to Leber; US 2003/0082316A1 by Scott; US 2004/0250461A1 by Dryer; and US2005/0081422A1 by Bradford], none do so without (a) requiring that tail feathers be individually inserted or attached to a portion of the display; (b) sandwiching tail feathers between plates, thereby obscuring the view of the complete tail fan; and/or (c) preventing display of the full cape and/or beard of the turkey in addition to the tail fan itself. None provide as mechanism for the display of the turkey's feathers free from the distracting view of portions of the display device itself.
Presently, no devices exist to spread the tail fan feathers of a freshly killed turkey in the field, without also requiring the hunter to use one or both hands in the process.